This book examines the politics of consumer and environmental risk regulation in the United States and Europe over the last five decades, explaining why America and Europe have often regulated a wide ...
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This book examines the politics of consumer and environmental risk regulation in the United States and Europe over the last five decades, explaining why America and Europe have often regulated a wide range of similar risks differently. It finds that between 1960 and 1990, American health, safety, and environmental regulations were more stringent, risk averse, comprehensive, and innovative than those adopted in Europe. But since around 1990 global regulatory leadership has shifted to Europe. What explains this striking reversal? This book takes an in-depth, comparative look at European and American policies toward a range of consumer and environmental risks, including vehicle air pollution, ozone depletion, climate change, beef and milk hormones, genetically modified agriculture, antibiotics in animal feed, pesticides, cosmetic safety, and hazardous substances in electronic products. The book traces how concerns over such risks—and pressure on political leaders to do something about them—have risen among the European public but declined among Americans. The book explores how policymakers in Europe have grown supportive of more stringent regulations while those in the United States have become sharply polarized along partisan lines. And as European policymakers have grown more willing to regulate risks on precautionary grounds, increasingly skeptical American policymakers have called for higher levels of scientific certainty before imposing additional regulatory controls on business.Less

The Politics of Precaution : Regulating Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks in Europe and the United States

David Vogel

Published in print: 2012-04-29

This book examines the politics of consumer and environmental risk regulation in the United States and Europe over the last five decades, explaining why America and Europe have often regulated a wide range of similar risks differently. It finds that between 1960 and 1990, American health, safety, and environmental regulations were more stringent, risk averse, comprehensive, and innovative than those adopted in Europe. But since around 1990 global regulatory leadership has shifted to Europe. What explains this striking reversal? This book takes an in-depth, comparative look at European and American policies toward a range of consumer and environmental risks, including vehicle air pollution, ozone depletion, climate change, beef and milk hormones, genetically modified agriculture, antibiotics in animal feed, pesticides, cosmetic safety, and hazardous substances in electronic products. The book traces how concerns over such risks—and pressure on political leaders to do something about them—have risen among the European public but declined among Americans. The book explores how policymakers in Europe have grown supportive of more stringent regulations while those in the United States have become sharply polarized along partisan lines. And as European policymakers have grown more willing to regulate risks on precautionary grounds, increasingly skeptical American policymakers have called for higher levels of scientific certainty before imposing additional regulatory controls on business.

This chapter examines the dynamics of consumer–resource interaction, one of the fundamental building blocks of food webs. In particular, it considers how consumer–resource systems that are ...
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This chapter examines the dynamics of consumer–resource interaction, one of the fundamental building blocks of food webs. In particular, it considers how consumer–resource systems that are nonexcitable and excitable respond to changes in interaction strength. The chapter begins with a discussion of two classes of interaction-strength metrics: the first focuses on instantaneous rates of change in one species with respect to another species; the second follows the longer-term influence of the removal of (or change in) one species on the density of another focal species. Continuous consumer–resource models are then described, after which two underlying mechanisms that are behind the stabilization of consumer–resource interactions are analyzed. The chapter concludes with a review of microcosm experiments and empirical data that show consistency with the proposed consumer–resource theory.Less

Consumer-Resource Dynamics: Building Consumptive Food Webs

Kevin S. McCann

Published in print: 2011-12-11

This chapter examines the dynamics of consumer–resource interaction, one of the fundamental building blocks of food webs. In particular, it considers how consumer–resource systems that are nonexcitable and excitable respond to changes in interaction strength. The chapter begins with a discussion of two classes of interaction-strength metrics: the first focuses on instantaneous rates of change in one species with respect to another species; the second follows the longer-term influence of the removal of (or change in) one species on the density of another focal species. Continuous consumer–resource models are then described, after which two underlying mechanisms that are behind the stabilization of consumer–resource interactions are analyzed. The chapter concludes with a review of microcosm experiments and empirical data that show consistency with the proposed consumer–resource theory.

Before the twentieth century, personal debt resided on the fringes of the American economy, the province of small-time criminals and struggling merchants. By the end of the century, however, the most ...
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Before the twentieth century, personal debt resided on the fringes of the American economy, the province of small-time criminals and struggling merchants. By the end of the century, however, the most profitable corporations and banks in the country lent money to millions of American debtors. How did this happen? This, the first book to follow the history of personal debt in modern America, traces the evolution of debt over the course of the twentieth century, following its transformation from fringe to mainstream—thanks to federal policy, financial innovation, and retail competition. How did banks begin making personal loans to consumers during the Great Depression? Why did the government invent mortgage-backed securities? Why was all consumer credit, not just mortgages, tax deductible until 1986? Who invented the credit card? Examining the intersection of government and business in everyday life, the book takes the reader behind the scenes of the institutions that made modern lending possible: the halls of Congress, the boardrooms of multinationals, and the back rooms of loan sharks. America's newfound indebtedness resulted not from a culture in decline, but from changes in the larger structure of American capitalism that were created, in part, by the choices of the powerful—choices that made lending money to facilitate consumption more profitable than lending to invest in expanded production. From the origins of car financing to the creation of subprime lending, the book presents a nuanced history of consumer credit practices in the United States and shows how little loans became big business.Less

Debtor Nation : The History of America in Red Ink

Louis Hyman

Published in print: 2011-01-23

Before the twentieth century, personal debt resided on the fringes of the American economy, the province of small-time criminals and struggling merchants. By the end of the century, however, the most profitable corporations and banks in the country lent money to millions of American debtors. How did this happen? This, the first book to follow the history of personal debt in modern America, traces the evolution of debt over the course of the twentieth century, following its transformation from fringe to mainstream—thanks to federal policy, financial innovation, and retail competition. How did banks begin making personal loans to consumers during the Great Depression? Why did the government invent mortgage-backed securities? Why was all consumer credit, not just mortgages, tax deductible until 1986? Who invented the credit card? Examining the intersection of government and business in everyday life, the book takes the reader behind the scenes of the institutions that made modern lending possible: the halls of Congress, the boardrooms of multinationals, and the back rooms of loan sharks. America's newfound indebtedness resulted not from a culture in decline, but from changes in the larger structure of American capitalism that were created, in part, by the choices of the powerful—choices that made lending money to facilitate consumption more profitable than lending to invest in expanded production. From the origins of car financing to the creation of subprime lending, the book presents a nuanced history of consumer credit practices in the United States and shows how little loans became big business.

This chapter focuses on consumer-resource dynamics in systems where consumers of different sizes compete for a shared resource. It considers the implications of three important aspects of consumer ...
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This chapter focuses on consumer-resource dynamics in systems where consumers of different sizes compete for a shared resource. It considers the implications of three important aspects of consumer life history: the explicit handling of a juvenile period leading to a delay between the time when an individual is born to when it starts to reproduce; the rate by which individual ecological processes scale with body size; and whether the rate by which the individual grows is dependent on food density or not. The chapter examines the effects of different resource growth dynamics to illustrate the fundamental differences between population cycles driven by interactions between individuals of different sizes, and classical predator–prey cycles driven by interactions between the consumer and the resource, also referred to as paradox of enrichment cycles. It also discusses experiments with the model organism, the cladoceran zooplankton Daphnia, to elucidate our current understanding of cycles driven by cohort interactions in this organism.Less

Dynamics of Consumer-Resource Systems

André M. de RoosLennart Persson

Published in print: 2013-01-15

This chapter focuses on consumer-resource dynamics in systems where consumers of different sizes compete for a shared resource. It considers the implications of three important aspects of consumer life history: the explicit handling of a juvenile period leading to a delay between the time when an individual is born to when it starts to reproduce; the rate by which individual ecological processes scale with body size; and whether the rate by which the individual grows is dependent on food density or not. The chapter examines the effects of different resource growth dynamics to illustrate the fundamental differences between population cycles driven by interactions between individuals of different sizes, and classical predator–prey cycles driven by interactions between the consumer and the resource, also referred to as paradox of enrichment cycles. It also discusses experiments with the model organism, the cladoceran zooplankton Daphnia, to elucidate our current understanding of cycles driven by cohort interactions in this organism.

This chapter examines the influence of biological lags on consumer–resource dynamics, with particular emphasis on how consumer–resource cycles, or the lack thereof, interact with population level ...
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This chapter examines the influence of biological lags on consumer–resource dynamics, with particular emphasis on how consumer–resource cycles, or the lack thereof, interact with population level dynamical phenomena. It first considers discrete consumer–resource interactions before discussing the dynamics of stage-structured consumer–resource interactions. It then explains how stage structure promotes the possibility of alternative stable states and changes consumer–resource interaction strength. It also shows how a change in population structure affects food web interactions and/or the strengths of food webs. Finally, it reviews empirical results that show how stage structure and food web interaction influence ecological stability. The chapter argues that weak and inherently stable consumer–resource interactions can mute a potentially unstable population level phenomenon, and that a dynamically decoupled stable stage class can strongly stabilize other stages and the consumer–resource interaction.Less

Lagged Consumer-Resource Dynamics

Kevin S. McCann

Published in print: 2011-12-11

This chapter examines the influence of biological lags on consumer–resource dynamics, with particular emphasis on how consumer–resource cycles, or the lack thereof, interact with population level dynamical phenomena. It first considers discrete consumer–resource interactions before discussing the dynamics of stage-structured consumer–resource interactions. It then explains how stage structure promotes the possibility of alternative stable states and changes consumer–resource interaction strength. It also shows how a change in population structure affects food web interactions and/or the strengths of food webs. Finally, it reviews empirical results that show how stage structure and food web interaction influence ecological stability. The chapter argues that weak and inherently stable consumer–resource interactions can mute a potentially unstable population level phenomenon, and that a dynamically decoupled stable stage class can strongly stabilize other stages and the consumer–resource interaction.

This chapter extends the consumer–resource theory to include simple but common three-species modules behind the construction of whole food webs, with particular emphasis on food chains and omnivory. ...
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This chapter extends the consumer–resource theory to include simple but common three-species modules behind the construction of whole food webs, with particular emphasis on food chains and omnivory. It first considers some common simple modular food web structures and whether the dynamics of subsystems can be seen using the framework laid out in previous chapters. Specifically, it asks when common food web structure increases or weakens the relative interaction strengths and/or when a food web structure modifies flux between consumers and resources in a density-dependent manner such that the food web tends to increase flux rates in some situations and decrease the coupling in other situations. The chapter also explores how stage structure can influence food chain stability before concluding with a review of empirical evidence on the dynamical implications of omnivory for food webs.Less

Food Chains and Omnivory

Kevin S. McCann

Published in print: 2011-12-11

This chapter extends the consumer–resource theory to include simple but common three-species modules behind the construction of whole food webs, with particular emphasis on food chains and omnivory. It first considers some common simple modular food web structures and whether the dynamics of subsystems can be seen using the framework laid out in previous chapters. Specifically, it asks when common food web structure increases or weakens the relative interaction strengths and/or when a food web structure modifies flux between consumers and resources in a density-dependent manner such that the food web tends to increase flux rates in some situations and decrease the coupling in other situations. The chapter also explores how stage structure can influence food chain stability before concluding with a review of empirical evidence on the dynamical implications of omnivory for food webs.

This chapter illustrates how the national debate over consumer protection underwent a remarkable transformation during the mid-1970s largely in response to the successes of an increasingly mobilized ...
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This chapter illustrates how the national debate over consumer protection underwent a remarkable transformation during the mid-1970s largely in response to the successes of an increasingly mobilized and organized corporate lobbying community. Once a relatively uncontested social goal, consumerism emerged from the contested politics of a stagflationary decade as a fraught clash of interests. To analyze the mechanisms of business lobbying and its effect on the shifting politics of consumer product regulation, the chapter traces the origins, rise, and slow death of Ralph Nader's biggest legislative priority for the consumer movement in the 1970s: a consumer protection agency in the federal government. Designed to institutionalize consumerism by inserting what Nader called a “consumer perspective” into the national regulatory apparatus, the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) was a constant fixture on the congressional docket from 1969 to 1978.Less

The Producer versus the Consumer

Benjamin C. Waterhouse

Published in print: 2013-11-24

This chapter illustrates how the national debate over consumer protection underwent a remarkable transformation during the mid-1970s largely in response to the successes of an increasingly mobilized and organized corporate lobbying community. Once a relatively uncontested social goal, consumerism emerged from the contested politics of a stagflationary decade as a fraught clash of interests. To analyze the mechanisms of business lobbying and its effect on the shifting politics of consumer product regulation, the chapter traces the origins, rise, and slow death of Ralph Nader's biggest legislative priority for the consumer movement in the 1970s: a consumer protection agency in the federal government. Designed to institutionalize consumerism by inserting what Nader called a “consumer perspective” into the national regulatory apparatus, the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) was a constant fixture on the congressional docket from 1969 to 1978.

This chapter considers “private” reform ideas or market solutions for improving the normative and democratic acceptability of boilerplate terms. It begins with a discussion of one potentially ...
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This chapter considers “private” reform ideas or market solutions for improving the normative and democratic acceptability of boilerplate terms. It begins with a discussion of one potentially important “private” incentive: reputation. Some firms are likely to be especially cognizant of the need to maintain good relationships with their users, and therefore responsive to the threat of reputational harm. This is most likely to be true for firms that have users who are reasonably savvy about issues of user rights, such as data privacy or information copying. After outlining the conditions conducive to consumer pushback, the chapter examines other private or market approaches, such as those involving rating agencies, seals of approval, and certifications. Finally, it looks at automated filtering or “machine bargaining,” and especially the implementation of filtering systems for personal computers.Less

“Private” Reform Ideas : Possible Market Solutions

Margaret Jane Radin

Published in print: 2012-11-25

This chapter considers “private” reform ideas or market solutions for improving the normative and democratic acceptability of boilerplate terms. It begins with a discussion of one potentially important “private” incentive: reputation. Some firms are likely to be especially cognizant of the need to maintain good relationships with their users, and therefore responsive to the threat of reputational harm. This is most likely to be true for firms that have users who are reasonably savvy about issues of user rights, such as data privacy or information copying. After outlining the conditions conducive to consumer pushback, the chapter examines other private or market approaches, such as those involving rating agencies, seals of approval, and certifications. Finally, it looks at automated filtering or “machine bargaining,” and especially the implementation of filtering systems for personal computers.

This chapter argues that mandated disclosure not only can be costly but also can inflict unintended and unnoticed harms. Mandates impose various direct costs on both disclosers and disclosees. For ...
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This chapter argues that mandated disclosure not only can be costly but also can inflict unintended and unnoticed harms. Mandates impose various direct costs on both disclosers and disclosees. For example, disclosers expend resources in collecting elusive information. Some disclosers must mail disclosures to thousands of disclosees annually or even more often. In addition, many transactions are nontrivially prolonged by disclosure rituals. The chapter considers the ways that mandated disclosure can undermine other regulation and ease pressure on lawmakers to enact better but more controversial regulation, such as the courts' ability to protect injured consumers, regulatory protection in consumer law, rules against unconscionable contracts, and people's ability to protect themselves. It also examines how disclosures make decisions worse, harm lenders and markets, and exacerbate inequality. Finally, it shows how mandated disclosure can impede efforts to ease suffering, cure illness, improve welfare, and prevent deaths.Less

At Worst, Harmless?

Omri Ben-ShaharCarl E. Schneider

Published in print: 2014-04-20

This chapter argues that mandated disclosure not only can be costly but also can inflict unintended and unnoticed harms. Mandates impose various direct costs on both disclosers and disclosees. For example, disclosers expend resources in collecting elusive information. Some disclosers must mail disclosures to thousands of disclosees annually or even more often. In addition, many transactions are nontrivially prolonged by disclosure rituals. The chapter considers the ways that mandated disclosure can undermine other regulation and ease pressure on lawmakers to enact better but more controversial regulation, such as the courts' ability to protect injured consumers, regulatory protection in consumer law, rules against unconscionable contracts, and people's ability to protect themselves. It also examines how disclosures make decisions worse, harm lenders and markets, and exacerbate inequality. Finally, it shows how mandated disclosure can impede efforts to ease suffering, cure illness, improve welfare, and prevent deaths.

This chapter explains the use of modular or motif-based theory to interpret the dynamics of whole food webs. According to Robert Holt, modules are “as motifs with muscles.” Holt's modular theory ...
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This chapter explains the use of modular or motif-based theory to interpret the dynamics of whole food webs. According to Robert Holt, modules are “as motifs with muscles.” Holt's modular theory focuses on the implications of the strength of the interactions on the dynamics and persistence of these units. In this book, the term “module” means all motifs that include interaction strength, whereas the term “motif” represents all possible subsystem connections, including the trivial one-node/species case to the n-node/species cases. Part 2 considers the dynamics of important ecological modules or motifs such as populations, consumer–resource interactions, food chains, and omnivory, while Part 3 uses the logic attained from this modular or motif-based theory in order to elucidate the dynamics of whole food webs. The book argues that ecologists must make a concerted effort to understand how coupling different modules ultimately modifies flux within each individual module.Less

Of Modules, Motifs, and Whole Webs

Kevin S. McCann

Published in print: 2011-12-11

This chapter explains the use of modular or motif-based theory to interpret the dynamics of whole food webs. According to Robert Holt, modules are “as motifs with muscles.” Holt's modular theory focuses on the implications of the strength of the interactions on the dynamics and persistence of these units. In this book, the term “module” means all motifs that include interaction strength, whereas the term “motif” represents all possible subsystem connections, including the trivial one-node/species case to the n-node/species cases. Part 2 considers the dynamics of important ecological modules or motifs such as populations, consumer–resource interactions, food chains, and omnivory, while Part 3 uses the logic attained from this modular or motif-based theory in order to elucidate the dynamics of whole food webs. The book argues that ecologists must make a concerted effort to understand how coupling different modules ultimately modifies flux within each individual module.